Ireland: The Emerald Isle is full of traditions but is still one of the most modern cultures in the world. The rainy island is more grey than green, but the nature is outstanding.
Intro
Ireland has long been a land influenced by migration. The exodus of the 19th Century has been replaced by the influx of the Celtic Tiger. While these influences are important, the culture dates back to pre-Christian times. Modern Ireland is a mix of its ancient culture and contemporary global influences on an island that, until recently, was relatively isolated from the rest of Europe. Whether it is The Wild Atlantic Way or The Historic East, there is something in Ireland for everybody.
Travel Style
If you want to get around Ireland quickly, you have to drive yourself. It is a very car-centric nation. When you leave the main population centers, public transport becomes limited. Out-of-the-way places are accessible by local bus, but you definitely need a decent allowance of time to get around.
7 Day Ireland itinerary
Most people want a short itinerary to visit Ireland. They only have a week to cram everything in. It isn’t ideal, but if it is your first trip, a seven-day trip is an excellent way to see a significant portion of the country. I am going to cause arguments here. Leaving Northern Ireland out is a conscious decision.
When Ireland has so much to offer, 7 days aren’t enough to cover the whole Island, so the North-South halves form a simple cut-off point. This is a busy trip but definitely rewarding. You could include Connemara or more time in Galway if you have an extra day or two.
Arrival in Dublin
Most transatlantic flights arrive quite early into Dublin. Make sure you book your car for early pickup and ensure that your accommodation allows for early check-in (somewhere to leave the car while exploring the city).
Dublin is a modern metropolis. Not a massive one, though, so it is relatively easy to get around on foot in the center. For a first-time visitor, head towards Trinity College. From here you have the modern commercial center of the city right beside you. Irish towns and villages have a much bigger feel than other countries. It sometimes seems that nobody works!! Everybody is wandering around town, even on a workday. My suggestion for the day would be to walk from here to the Guinness Store House.
It could take you much longer than the afternoon. Plan in advance what you want to see. The Book of Kells in the Trinity College Library is really worth stopping for. The Gospels decorated by the monks in the 8th Century is not something you see very often. The library is also very beautiful. From here you head past Temple Bar. Stop for a Guinness if you are already thirsty. The area is the party centre of the city but is more often frequented by tourists than locals.
Continue past Dublin Castle (now government offices) and you will arrive to Christ Church Cathedral. The crypt is worth a look. Nearby is the Viking Museum. The Vikings founded Dublin over 1000 years ago.
Slightly further on is the famous Guinness Storehouse. The original and today the only European brewery of the famous stout. Ireland is known for its beer but the original is still the best.
A tour and introduction is a great way to learn about Irish culture even if you are not a drinker yourself. If you know everything about beer then maybe the Jameson distillery across the river is a better option.
Get recommendations for dinner from your hotel or lodging. There is always something good in the neighbourhood. You won’t have to go far. Local knowledge is very important in Ireland. Get used to getting into conversation with strangers.
Rock of Cashel and Cork
It is about a three hour drive to Cork so if there is something else you want to see in Dublin then take the morning to relax and check it out. I think missing out on the National Museum would be a shame. The museum is home to some amazing gold treasures from Ireland’s past.
For me their most fascinating exhibitions though are the almost perfectly preserved 2000 year old murder victims. It does sound ghoulish. However the museum is home to a couple of bodies that were found in the bogs that the midlands of Ireland are famous for. The oxygen starved waters of the wetlands prevent the fast decomposition of organic material leading the the peat that was used as the country’s main fuel until quite recently (1960’s). Two human remains were discovered which have what appear to be quite interesting histories as well as helping archaeologists understand the past.
Leave Dublin before lunch and head towards Cork. A couple of hours south of Dublin the little hilltop of Cashel was one time the most important castle of the country. Today the Rock of Cashel as it is known is outside a reasonably sized town. Built on a hilltop with a traditional round tower beside it, the fortress was the traditional home to the kings of Munster before the Norman invasion of the 12th Century. Most of the structure dates from this time. It is a great place to break your trip southwards and get a bite to eat.
Continue towards Cork, the republic’s second city (Belfast, in Northern Ireland is the 2nd largest on the Island). The city has a large student and European population. Many young europeans come here to work as language specialists for the tech firms, Apple, Amazon and many more. The city has its charm but it is a couple of towns nearby that I recommend visiting.
Staying in the for tonight and tomorrow will give you a good feel for the area. However staying outside the city can help with traffic problems for tomorrow’s visits.
Blarney and Cobh
One of the best known castles anywhere, Blarney Castle from the 15th Century is properly just a castle keep in ruins. However its shape, setting and connection to Queen Elizabeth have all propelled it to legendary status.
The castle in the village of Blarney is about 10 miles outside Cork City. The village itself has grown as a satellite town of the city as the village wasn’t very important during the last 500 years. However before that it was the home to the McCarthy’s and they built the imposing tower we see today.
One of the unique points is that the tower is on private land and surrounded by a stand of relatively untouched forest that hides it from view. From the village you can pay to enter the grounds and it is a short walk to the castle. The tight spaces and narrow staircases lead to the top where the view is (like the top of most castles) breathtaking. The steep stairs might help cause the breathlessness.
Uniquely at the top of Blarney Castle you can kiss the eponymous stone. By leaning over backwards over a gap in the battlements it is thought that kissing the stone will give you the gift of the gab. In other words the Irsh skill of talking. The story originated when Queen Elizabeth the first said of the lord McCarthy that he was speaking ‘blarney’ when he visited the court in London.
From Blarney head to Cobh. Cork is built at the mouth of the River Lee which has one of the best natural harbours in the world, comparable to Sydney or San Francisco. However the tidal range is large and the modern bigger boats can’t make it up to the city. In 1912 The Titanic made its last port of call to Cork Harbour. More specifically the port of Cobh within the harbour. It is here that most cruise ships moor today and across the harbour is the modern industrial port of the city.
Cobh has a Cathedral, pretty coloured row houses, a waterfront promenade and a few good restaurants but the main draw is the emigration museum. For a century before the Titanic many ships sailed from here to the Americas with impoverished Irish catholics and protestants on board in deplorable conditions. The museum tells the story of these poor souls fleeing the persecution of the british and the poverty of their over-populated land. It will also tell you the lesser known fact that the Titanic never moored here despite everybody ‘knowing’ that it was the last port of call. As the Titanic was delayed Captain Smith decided to anchor outside the harbour and people went out to the ship by tender.
West to the Wild Atlantic Way
The Wild Atlantic Way follows the coast from Kinsale to Donegal in the North of the country some 1600 miles or 2500 Km in total. While the wild Atlantic coast has a massive influence on the country and some people come to Ireland to do just this I feel a section of it is enough.
Leave Cork and head west towards Killarney. Killarney sits at the head of the Ring of Kerry. This famous drive around the Iveragh Peninsula runs through the Kilarney National Park to start with and then follows the coast from Kenmare through towns like Waterville and Cahersiveen back to its starting point.
Stop for a coffee in Killarney and stroll around the national park, maybe near Muckross House to see the original Irish Woodland. The oak forest around here is one of the very few remaining stands of old Irish Rainforest.
The route around the peninsula really shows the wilderness that Ireland is famous for abroad. However it is rare to find in most of Ireland. At the end of the Peninsula is Waterville and Europes only Gold level Dark Sky Site. As we are on the extreme edge of Europe there is no light pollution here.
A bit further along is the Island of Valencia. It was from here in the 1850’s that the first transatlantic cable was laid. This connected Newfoundland with Europe and reduced communication time from weeks to seconds. There is a small museum dedicated to this amazing time in history on the island.
Continuing onwards we reach Cahersiveen and still further gets us to Killorglin, home to Puck Fair. This famous festival sees the crowning of a wild goat each year as “King Puck”. Puck is the irish word for a male goat. If you are here in August it is worth checking out which wild goat from the mountains you just circumnavigated was unlucky enough to be caught and dressed up as king.
It is a long day of driving. Irish country roads can be slow. However it is not far to our destination : Dingle. From Killorglin you can head back to Killarney or head further west along the next peninsula. It is about an hour further along to Dingle.
Dingle Peninsula is a famous Irish speaking area and has a lot more history to offer compared to the wilds of the previously visited Iveragh Peninsula/
Find a B&B in Dingle and get some seafood for dinner. Ireland has great seafood but it is mostly the visitors that eat seafood. The Irish avoid it culturally since the time of the famine. After dinner head to one of the many pubs (there are more here per capita than any other town supposedly) for a session of trad. Nobody in Ireland says ‘traditional music’, especially when you can just shorten it to ‘trad’. Most of the pubs have some good groups. Ask your host who is playing and where.
The Marina Inn and the Droichead Beag nearly always have a group playing but there might be something different on the night you are there.
Dingle Peninsula, Cliffs of Moher and Lisdoonvarna
If the music didn’t keep you up too late the night before start early. Head north out of Dingle you will pass Gallarus Oratory. This is a small church of unknown date. It is at least 900 years old, possibly older. What makes it unique though is that it was simply built of stone, dry stone with no cement to hold the stones in place. The roofing technique called corbelling is well preserved and the interior is kept dry despite the frequent rains on the Irish west coast.
Continue over the Conor Pass to Tralee and from here head north to the ferry at Tarbert. This ferry crosses the estuary of the Shannon, Ireland’s longest river that drains the interior of the country and enters the sea at Limerick. Drive into Kilrush for lunch.
Spend the afternoon at the Cliffs of Moher and in the Burren. These are Ireland’s most famous cliffs but not the tallest. The Cliffs of Moher drop directly into the Atlantic Ocean from an impressive 200 m (approx 700 ft). Visit the Burren visitor centre next to the cliffs to discover more about the geology of the region. It is unique. Find time for a stroll around the Burren region nearby. If you are really interested and there in the spring find a guide to show you some of the endemic flower species or some of the almost tropical species that exist nowhere else as far north.
Depending on how you fell and the time spend the night in the village of Lisdoonvarna or the City of Galway a bit further along. Which ever you choose the pubs will have more lively trad sessions. The West of Ireland is renowned for its music.
Newgrange and Dublin
Heading back East it is about 3 hours into Dublin. That leaves time for one last detour before we get there. Leaving the main highway two thirds of the way back to the capital you head to Navan and the nearby neolithic sites of Newgrange in the Boyne Valley.
The Boyne Valley is home to some of Ireland’s most historic sights from the Hill of Tara an ancient and mythological centre to the site of the Battle of the Boyne, where two English pretenders to the throne William of Orange and James the first battled over religion.
The best known site of interest along the river though are the passage tombs. These burial mounds, the best known of which is Newgrange, are even older than the pyramids. A 5000 year old grave doesn’t sound impressive until you realise how precisely aligned they were with the movements of the astronomical bodies. In Newgrange the sun on the winters solstice comes through a tiny slit at precisely sunrise to light up the burial chamber 20 meters inside the mound. On a normal visit this is simulated for you as only VIPs and a few winners of a public lottery get to see it on the actual day of the solstice.
As accurate as our ancestors were, nowadays there is a slight discrepancy with the time. The slight variation in the orbit of the sun means that we are now out of alignment by about 20 minutes with the sun’s position of 5000 years ago.
Head back south towards Dublin from here. I am pretty sure you didn’t see all of Dublin in just one afternoon and morning. Maybe Kilmainham Goal, where the rebels of the first independence movement were held or the GPO (general post office) museum where the proclamation of independence was read. There’s also the Jamesons Distillery if you visited the Guinness brewery on your first day. Maybe get a literary tour of Dublin instead, the city has been home to many great writers, Joyce, Swift, Stoker and Doyle for example.
Departure from Dublin
Most flights towards the Americas from Dublin leave in the afternoon so you can spend the morning somewhere like Howth or Malahide. Both are now suburbs of Dublin but were previously coastal escapes for the wealthier members of the city’s society. The two towns are quite a nice option for a sea side stroll, or a visit to their respective castles or grounds. A relaxing way to finish your trip before heading to the nearby airport instead of stressing with the traffic of the city center.
Conclusion
Seven days is an excellent introduction to Ireland. The Northern half is maybe a bit more wild than the South. With this itinerary, you are missing out on half the country.
There is only one solution. You need to go back for a second trip.
